Make Me Smart

The Senate is set to bring the Green New Deal to a vote as early as this week. Crafted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, it’s an ambitious plan to de-carbonize the American economy while adding new jobs in infrastructure and alternative energy. Environmental reporter and podcaster Amy Westervelt tells us what’s in the Green New Deal and how it’s faring in the climate of Washington, D.C. Plus, an important clarification on some Toto lyrics.

Don’t forget to check out this behind-the-scenes look at how we got our theme music, plus video of our conversation with Wesley Morris. It’s all on our YouTube channel.

This episode is brought to you by the Alliance For Lifetime Income and Bill.com.

Between controversy over best picture nominees, changes to which awards are handed out during commercials and ever-plummeting ratings, this year’s Academy Awards are a hostless mess. That’s to say nothing of Hollywood’s ongoing problems with representation and harassment. And what about the Grammys? New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris helps us sort through the awards noise and see if there are lessons to learn. Plus: It’s our 100th episode! We have cake in the studio and surprise treat for all of you!

Folks, it’s time to talk about memes. It’s time to talk about the Dancing Baby and Bird Box Challenge and, yes, The Egg. If none of that makes sense to you, don’t worry. We get you up to speed on memes before we ask the money question: Where is the profit when they go viral? And who owns memes, since they’re often based on copyrighted material? Matt Schimkowitz sets us straight. He’s senior editor at Know Your Meme, a site devoted to cataloging and canonizing all the weird, wonderful internet memes you love and hate. Plus, more of your thoughts on assumptions about college. And in our Make Me Smart question: A medical diagnosis helps one listener understand his experience of the world.

This week’s show is brought to you by TripleByte, Bill.com and the The University of Utah David Eccles School of Business.

The federal government might be reopened, but many Americans are still reeling. And, of course, it could close again in a few weeks. At 35 days, this was the longest shutdown in history, and we’re still learning how the effects will ripple across the economy, politics and society. We get smart about how the shutdown is affecting one college administrator and then zoom out to the big question: How did closing the government even become a thing you can do, much less a bargaining chip for Congress and the White House? Joining us to explain is Roy Meyers, a political science professor at the University of Maryland. Plus, your super-smart insights on everything from how class and culture impact our thinking about higher education to a lifetime of delusional spelling.

This episode is brought to you by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, MailChimp and Triple Byte.

Picture this: After years of hard work, the world is your oyster. You’re about to graduate with an advanced degree into a prestigious field. Then, you’re out to lunch and you see a restaurant manager position that pays just as much as your hopeful starting salary, but without the student debt attached. One of our listeners was in that position recently. And he’s not alone: Americans face $1.3+ trillion in student debt, and less assurance the job market’s going to provide salaries to cover it. We put this soul searching to Maura Reynolds, a senior editor at Politico, who’s just out with new findings on the skills-education-employment pipeline.

This week’s show is brought to you by Wasabi cloud storage, Triple Byte and Mailchimp.

Something’s been nagging at us all holiday break. With each fresh revelation about Facebook, new thoughts arise about whether or not to participate on the platform, and whether that really makes a difference or not. But quitting Instagram, which is, of course, owned by Facebook, feels quite a bit harder. We’re attached! Our listeners tell us they’ve got the same cognitive dissonance going on. So we brought on Taylor Lorenz, who reports on social media for The Atlantic, to help us unpack it.

This episode is brought to you by Mailchimp and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage.

In this new year, maybe you’ve resolved to improve yourself, or you might return to projects and problems left hanging in 2018. One approach to try: design thinking. We talked with Sarah Stein Greenberg, who runs the design program at Stanford University, about the fundamentals, promises and limits of a design-centered approach to just about everything. Plus, a look into the process of object and interior designer Jonathan Adler.

This interview originally aired July 10. New episodes return Jan. 15.

This episode is brought to you by MailChimp and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage.